Web Sites

Here are some basic things to look out for:

Visual Appearance

  • Use clear sans-serifed fonts (eg Arial, Helvetica, Verdana)
  • Ensure good contrast between text and background
  • Check that the text size on the page can be increased (Zoom the page to 200% or try setting Text Size to Largest)
  • Make sure that each page has a meaningful title
  • Avoid the use of distracting, moving or flashing images
  • Use headings, bullets and lists to reduce the density of text and increase white space.

Layout

  • Left align text
  • Avoid the use of frames
  • Avoid the use of tables to layout text

Keyboard Accessible

  • Make sure that the page can be navigated from the keyboard without the use of a mouse.

Could you use it sight free?

  • Give each image an alt-tag
  • Use descriptive phrases for links not just click here (links should make sense out of context)
  • Use different link text if the links go to different places
  • Make sure that colour or shape is not used on its own to signal information

Multimedia

More Information

The Web Accessibility Initiative (part of W3C) define recognised best practice for accessible websites.